Auguste Rodin (French, 1840–1917). <em>Youth Triumphant (La Jeunesse triomphante)</em>, 1896; cast date unknown (after 1898). Bronze, 20 1/2 x 18 x 12 3/4 in. (52.1 x 45.7 x 32.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation, 84.210.2. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 84.210.2_SL1.jpg)

Auguste Rodin (French, 1840–1917). Youth Triumphant (La Jeunesse triomphante), 1896; cast date unknown (after 1898). Bronze, 20 1/2 x 18 x 12 3/4 in. (52.1 x 45.7 x 32.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation, 84.210.2. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 84.210.2_SL1.jpg)

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Download our app and ask your own questions during your visit. Here are some that others have asked.

Is this a young couple? A precedent for The Kiss?

The Kiss was actually sculpture over a decade before this one! This sculpture, called "Youth Triumphant," shows an older woman and a younger woman. Rodin liked to combine and recombine limbs and figures he had sculpted in new ways, and often left works like this up to the individual interpretation of the viewer.

The older of the two women reappears in another work by Rodin called "The Helmet-Maker’s Wife."

While the women embrace, their relationship remains unclear, complicated by the multiple titles given to this work, including "Fate and the Convalescent" and "Young Girl and Fate."

Thank you!!!

Tell me more.

Not much is known about Rodin's inspiration for this sculpture, known as Youth Triumphant.

Like many of his works, what is especially interesting about this work, is the movement of the bodies. Rodin was particularly interested in conveying emotion through gesture. These figures' faces are largely obscured so you must turn to the bodies to begin to interpret it.

How did the reduction process work? Was it a mechanical process using some sort of 3D pantograph or did the workshop just copy a large work smaller?

It was a manual process with some mechanical assistance. To reduce works, Rodin and his assistants used a Collas Machine.

The Collas Machine basically allowed the person sculpting a reduced work to keep that work and the original sculpture at the exact same angle. Needles and a sharp cutting instrument attached to the machine would allow the sculptor to transfer the profile of one sculpture to the other.

Thanks!

The label mentions dropped scissors, is there a reason why the scissors would have been dropped behind?

In Greek mythology the "fates," figures that appear as old women, carry enchanted scissors that they use to end people's lives manifested in the form of a thread.

In this sculpture, the dropped scissors suggest that the Fate will not be cutting the young woman's thread and the young women will be able to go on living.

Youth Triumphant (La Jeunesse triomphante)

European Art

On View:

In this enigmatic group Rodin joined the figures of an elderly and a young woman embracing. Their relationship is unclear: Rodin did not always attach a specific meaning or narrative to his works, nor did he grant too much importance to titles, leaving things open to a range of interpretations. The piece has also been called Fate and the Convalescent and Young Girl and Fate, which both seem to refer to the small scissors on the back. In this reading, the old woman is Fate, who has dropped her scissors and will not be snipping the delicate thread of the young woman’s life. The title Youth Triumphant suggests an allegory of the life cycle, with youth rising to overcome age.

The wizened old woman here epitomizes Rodin’s frequent interest in depicting unconventional or unidealized figures.

ARTIST Auguste Rodin, French, 1840–1917

CAST BY Thiébaut Frères, Fumière & Gavignot successeurs

MEDIUM Bronze

Place Made: France

DATES 1896; cast date unknown (after 1898)

DIMENSIONS 20 1/2 x 18 x 12 3/4 in. (52.1 x 45.7 x 32.4 cm) (show scale)

MARKINGS Side with feet, stamp for Thiébaut

SIGNATURE Bottom right: "A. Rodin"

COLLECTIONS European Art

ACCESSION NUMBER 84.210.2

CREDIT LINE Gift of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation

EXHIBITIONS

MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view

CAPTION Auguste Rodin (French, 1840–1917). Youth Triumphant (La Jeunesse triomphante), 1896; cast date unknown (after 1898). Bronze, 20 1/2 x 18 x 12 3/4 in. (52.1 x 45.7 x 32.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation, 84.210.2. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 84.210.2_SL1.jpg)

EDITION Edition: 23/unknown

IMAGE overall, 84.210.2_SL1.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph

"CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.

RIGHTS STATEMENT Creative Commons-BY

You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.

RECORD COMPLETENESS

Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.

Download our app and ask your own questions during your visit. Here are some that others have asked.

Is this a young couple? A precedent for The Kiss?

The older of the two women reappears in another work by Rodin called "The Helmet-Maker’s Wife."

While the women embrace, their relationship remains unclear, complicated by the multiple titles given to this work, including "Fate and the Convalescent" and "Young Girl and Fate."

Thank you!!!

Tell me more.

Not much is known about Rodin's inspiration for this sculpture, known as Youth Triumphant.

How did the reduction process work? Was it a mechanical process using some sort of 3D pantograph or did the workshop just copy a large work smaller?

It was a manual process with some mechanical assistance. To reduce works, Rodin and his assistants used a Collas Machine.

Thanks!

The label mentions dropped scissors, is there a reason why the scissors would have been dropped behind?

In Greek mythology the "fates," figures that appear as old women, carry enchanted scissors that they use to end people's lives manifested in the form of a thread.

In this sculpture, the dropped scissors suggest that the Fate will not be cutting the young woman's thread and the young women will be able to go on living.

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Youth Triumphant (La Jeunesse triomphante)

European Art

On View:

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European Art

On View:

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